The quality was not the same, but Manchester United’s FA Cup third-round win over Arsenal felt like a throwback.
The red card started proceedings, but the contentious penalty decision followed by the team-wide scuffle will be a memory that could rival some of the battles between Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson’s sides of the 1990s and 2000s.
Two of the most iconic moments of that rivalry involved penalties taken by Ruud van Nistelrooy so it seemed fitting the first meeting between Mikel Arteta and Ruben Amorim should end with another Dutch striker dispatching a winning spot kick.
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In the next round, United will now face Leicester City, managed by Van Nistelrooy, who also took charge at Old Trafford for four games on an interim basis this season.
Here, The Athletic analyses the details of the shootout.
The first image we saw of Arteta after the final whistle was next to Nicolas Jover, Arsenal’s set-piece coach, huddled around a tablet.
It wasn’t the ideal situation for Arsenal, who were without their primary penalty taker Bukayo Saka through injury, as well as several other players who had scored from the spot in recent seasons. Perhaps the biggest miss outside of Saka was Jorginho, considered among the Premier League’s best penalty-takers when playing for Chelsea, who was substituted for full-back Kieran Tierney in extra time.
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They were strengthened by the additions of Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard from the bench. They did, however, have to remove one player from their line-up to match United’s 10 players after Diogo Dalot was sent off for two yellow cards in regular time and that was defender William Saliba.
United were also without several players who might have expected to take penalties if they were on the pitch. Casemiro and Christian Eriksen were left on the bench, and Rasmus Hojlund, who might have been expected to take one if he was on the pitch, was taken off in the second half of regulation time.
Both goalkeepers, David Raya and Altay Bayindir, had periods with the coaching staff while the outfielders gathered on the pitch.
While Bayindir was surrounded by several United coaches in the dugout, Raya only consulted with Arsenal goalkeeper coach Inaki Cana away from the rest of the coaching and playing staff.
As the groups began making their way to their positions on the halfway line, referee Andy Madley called over Martin Odegaard and Bruno Fernandes for two coin tosses.
The first, won by Fernandes, was to decide which side the penalties were to be taken on, and the United captain chose to conduct the shootout in front of the travelling fans. On whether this has an effect, BBC pundit Alan Shearer said, “I suppose it does on some players. I can only speak from personal experience, and it didn’t really bother me. I was that focused and determined that I knew what I wanted to do and hoped I got the connection I wanted.”
The second was to see who took their penalty first. It wasn’t clear on broadcast which captain won that toss, but a 2011 study found the team who take first win around 60 per cent of the time, so it’s likely Fernandes won both tosses as he stepped up first. Anecdotally, former England and Barcelona striker Gary Lineker backed that up on the BBC broadcast, saying, “It’s an advantage, slightly, to go first, I always think.”
Before Fernandes grabbed hold of the gold ball which manufacturer Mitre had designed for United to play with to commemorate their FA Cup success last season, Raya called towards the ball boy to throw one over while the referee went over the rules with him and his counterpart.
It proved to have little immediate success, as Fernandes calmly slotted his penalty away in the bottom left corner after his stutter-step technique baited Raya into diving early.
Following the trend of the captain taking first, Odegaard led the way from an Arsenal perspective. Earlier in the match, Bayindir had denied him from the spot with an excellent save down to his left side, which kept United on level terms.
While Bayindir went to the same corner in the shootout, Odegaard opened his body up and stroked into the opposite side, levelling the scores at 1-1.
Amad stepped up next and confidently whipped a left-footed penalty into the bottom right corner.
Next up, Havertz positioned the ball on the spot, Bayindir left the line and went around the post to grab his water bottle.
Whether the Turkey international simply wanted a drink, or had instructions written on the outside a la Jordan Pickford in England’s Euro 2024 triumph against Switzerland, the delaying tactic proved effective.
Havertz followed Fernandes’ lead in using the stutter-step technique, but his effort was saved brilliantly by Bayindir’s outstretched left arm.
The celebrations between Bayindir and the United faithful behind the goal indicated their shared confidence that the club would be on their way to one of Amorim’s most impressive victories so far as manager.
From then on, there was little doubt within the United team, as evidenced by Leny Yoro’s confident stroke into the side netting, with Raya having dived early again.
Declan Rice responded with a similar effort, just evading Bayindir’s grasp, before Lisandro Martinez adopted the stutter technique to put United 4-2 ahead.
Needing to score to keep Arsenal in the match, Thomas Partey stepped up and lifted a shot down the middle and away from Bayindir’s outstretched leg.
Then, the opportunity fell on Joshua Zirkzee to send United into the fourth round.
With the memories of Newcastle United, where Zirkzee was jeered off the pitch by some of his supporters after being substituted in the 33rd minute, still surely fresh in his mind, it was a brave decision by Amorim to award the final penalty to the 23-year-old.
Bayindir met Zirkzee on the edge of the box and briefly spoke before leaving the Dutchman to take the most important kick of his short United career.
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In front of the United fans, some of whom may have been among those jeering him a couple of weeks ago (and then sang his name a week later after a positive cameo in the 2-2 draw with Liverpool), Zirkzee had his moment of redemption.
Zirkzee fired a shot into his bottom left corner and ran towards the supporters, waving his hand.
Hello, United; he’s here.
(Top photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)
